


Third Chance

by EliMorgan



Series: MMFBingo18 Shorts [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Attempt at Humor, F/M, M/M, MMFBingo18, Multi, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 01:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16007420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EliMorgan/pseuds/EliMorgan
Summary: Regulus is losing hope after multiple attempts to introduce his husband to his girlfriend fail miserably. Perhaps Pepper herself holds the solution?





	Third Chance

**Author's Note:**

> **I do not own the works made use of herein, none of the Harry Potter/Marvel universe features or characters belong to me. I make no money from this work.**
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> Written for the MMFBingo18 event in the Marvelously Magical Fanfiction Facebook group, to fill my 'Lucius Malfoy/Regulus Black/Pepper Potts' square. In this AU Pepper kept Extremis, got it all stabilised and stuff, and learned how to control it, because why not.  
> Gods, but this is a weird triad! I love it!  
> Enjoy!  
> Eliza x

“I'm in love!” Regulus announced as he burst through the door, his face set in a goofy grin. Lucius sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Imagine that,” he drawled, barely looking up from his paper. “And for only the fifth time this week. Tell me, dearest, is there a Black gene that somehow precludes fidelity?”

Regulus scoffed. “Coming from the man who cheated on me with a woman for twenty years?”

“I feel compelled to remind you that you were dead for all of that time.”

“If that's a good excuse, then mine will be brilliant.” Shrugging off the tension, Regulus dropped into a chair and leaned forward, practically vibrating with excitement. “I've found us a third.”

Lucius lowered his newspaper, careful not to betray his anticipation. Regulus often found women, or, more accurately, women found him; a very well preserved forty-something (to be more accurate would betray his own age, and Lucius was in firm denial of _that_ ) he had no end of admirers, especially amongst the ranks of Malfoy staff. Never before had he suggested a third, despite how they both longed for one. Never.

“Truly?” he asked.

Regulus nodded, a soft smile curling his lips as he met his lover’s eyes. “You have to promise to keep an open mind.”

Lucius froze. “No.”

“Yes,” Regulus pressed, his eyebrows waggling madly. “An open mind, Lucius. I demand it.”

“You're trying to trap me,” he accused, folding his newspaper and throwing it to one side. He groped for his cane - one of the many and varied humiliations of his advancing age was that it was no longer a pretension. “You'll demand I keep an open mind and then throw me something completely unacceptable, like a centaur.”

His husband laughed, eyes sparkling, and Lucius was momentarily dazzled. “Well, if a centaur is your lowest bar, then we should be fine. Come on, Lucius, you know me. Would I ever turn you wrong?” Regulus batted his eyelashes innocently, which should look ridiculous on a fully grown man but was, instead, endearing. Damn him.

“One word, Regulus Black,” Lucius drawled, feeling vicious. “‘Cave’.”

Shrugging languidly, Reg waved that off. “Make one tiny mistake… no. We're not getting into that. At least meet her, Lucius. She's everything you like in a woman - beautiful, brainy, successful, fair of hair and slim of figure…”

“Good Gods, it's not Narcissa again, is it?”

The pair gave a simultaneous shudder.

“Definitely not. Her name is Virginia, and we'll be meeting with her tomorrow,” Regulus said firmly. “And if you're good, there might even be a new peahen in it for you.”

Lucius brightened. “A new Esmerelda?”

“Indeed,” his husband nodded solemnly. “The bearer of a whole new dynasty of Malfoy peacock, and all you'll have to do is play nice.”

“You drive a hard bargain.”

“That, my dear, is why you love me.”

* * *

 

Their meeting didn't get off on the right foot. Or, well, it might have, depending on how you looked at it. Lucius, for example, was very pleased with the outcome, having walked into the very posh, very exclusive restaurant, looked at the woman waiting for them, and without further ado, shouted “a ginger!” in disgust, before proceeding directly to the exit.

Regulus, understandably, disagreed.

“I'm so sorry,” he said to his companion, frowning in the direction of his husband's exit. “He's not usually this rude.”

Virginia - “Call me Pepper” - Potts shook her head indulgently, smiling. The way her eyes curved up at the corners and softened enchanted Regulus, distracting him from her words. “It's fine, really, Regulus. Ten years with Tony inured me to pretty much all possible foibles.”

“He'll come around,” Regulus reassured her. Or maybe himself. One of them.

“Will he?”

“I'll make him. Even if he has to sleep on the sofa until he does.”

Pepper laughed. “Well, that's a novel way to get me a date.”

* * *

 The next time went marginally better. After a week of Reg talking Lucius out of mangled nightmares of a Weasley-esque brood, Pepper returned to the States, promising to visit again soon. It took two months after that to prepare Lucius for her next visit, and they finally managed to set up a date in an aviary, Lucius’s home environment. This time, they made it to Pepper, at least, without him storming away.

“Hello,” Pepper greeted him with one of her stunning smiles, the one that had Regulus melting. “Pepper Potts. Pleasure to meet you.”

Lucius’ pleasantly neutral face suddenly contorted into horror. “American!” he barked, disgusted, before apparating away with a _crack._

Later, after more apologies, Regulus faced him in their parlor, where Lucius was knocking back whiskeys. “An American!” he repeated, face still curdled.

“Yes. She's American,” Regulus said boredly, as if that were a desirable trait and not, in fact, something Lucius tended to actively avoid in acquaintances. Catching the sour look on Lucius’s face, Regulus groaned. “Oh, come on, Lucius. Join me in the twenty-first Century, where Americans are our equals and nobody except you has referred to their homeland as ‘the Colonies’ for over a hundred years.”

“ _American,_ ” Lucius repeated in mild horror. “One of those gauche creatures who keep trying to steal our land!”

Closing his eyes, Regulus said gently, “Lucius, nobody is trying to steal our land.”

“Pepper Potts is!”

* * *

And so, it was another few months before Regulus managed to get Lucius to meet Pepper again - Pepper, whom Regulus had been discreetly courting on the side, certain that Lucius would come around. Pepper, who Regulus was quite certain he'd fallen in love with, despite the distance imposed on their relationship.

“Is it worth this?” Pepper had asked at their last plotting session, where Regulus had felt lost, out of sorts, adrift. How could he keep both of the people he loved, when one was so adamantly against the other? “Me, I mean. This does seem like a lot of effort for such a small gain.” He winced at the honest expression on her face, the one that told him she wasn’t being falsely modest.

“Of course it is,” he’d told Pepper haughtily, nodding decisively when she gave him a sceptical look. “You are worth this.”

"Well, then," Pepper shrugged daintily, making a show of examining her nails to hide her nerves, at the same time making her solution sound like the most obvious thing in the world. "You're both 'Slytherins', right? Well, from what you've told me, It seems simply you need to convince your bigot boyfriend that I'm 'special' enough to warrant his attention - while making it seem like his idea to begin with. Make him make me his project, or so he thinks. Show him that I'm not just some dirty Muggle you picked up directly off the plane."

That was... actually genius. Regulus wanted to feel bad at the idea of manipulating his strong, powerful, clever husband, but couldn't. Not when he knew that Lucius would do the same and more to ensure his, Regulus', happiness - and wasn't that why he was doing this, anyway? Pepper was Lucius's perfect match, just as she was his. Brilliant, bright. Strong enough to hold up against his attacks, to keep him in line. Soft enough to be that warm place they went at the end of a particularly long day, sweet enough to ensure they softened, themselves. She was independent, could stand alone, but also knew how to lean - which was good, because, raised as gentlemen, both men knew how to support.

 _I love you_ , Regulus mooned to himself, his heart melting at her clever, clever words. He wasn't going to say that, though. Not today.

"Boat," Regulus corrected her, instead. "I'm almost certain Lucius still thinks the only way to access America is by boat."

Pepper shot him a look loaded with wry amusement. "Remind me again why I'm even bothering to make a fool of myself for this man?"

"Because you find arseholes irresistible?" Regulus winked, only for it to turn into a hiss when she pinched him, hard.

"Wrong answer," she smiled prettily.

* * *

“This is your last chance,” he now warned Lucius, voice tight. He loved the man, he did, but he was really, very ridiculous. This whole situation was ludicrous.

“I can't see how it will go any better this time,” Lucius sniffed, adjusting his cravat in the mirror. “A ginger, an American - what's next? Will you be telling me she's a muggle?”

“Yes.” Regulus watched Lucius jerk in shock, his face paling. “A brilliant one. And let's be honest, Lucius. It's about time our families got some new blood.”

Lucius scowled fiercely, though, perhaps, not as fiercely as he might have before the war. Blood purity had been all well and good, until he found out that the man leading the charge into a pure future had murdered his lover, at which point he'd promptly defected. Muggles still unnerved him, he still rather thought their lack of magical ability made them much less than him, but since he also considered most magical people lesser, there wasn't much of a conflict.

“Besides, she is not entirely without power,” Regulus added blithely, inspecting his fingernails. “She can set fire to things with her hands.” Not an entirely accurate description, perhaps, but…

Lucius perked up immediately. “Really? A Muggle can do _that_?”

“Amongst other things, yes.” Regulus cocked an eyebrow at Lucius, who was eyeing him curiously. “What is it? I thought you didn’t want to meet her.”

“Can _all_ Muggles do that?” his husband asked, waving away Regulus’s statement.

“Only some of them. Including Pepper.”

The blonde’s eyes widened. “So she truly is special among her kind. Among her kind is not the same as among ours, of course, but still… _Fascinating._ Do you think that's why she's ginger?”

Regulus smirked to himself behind his hands as Lucius continued to pepper him with questions. It seemed he was truly intrigued by the idea of a Muggle woman with real power. Well, good. It might not be a proposal, and it certainly wasn't any real feeling, but, for Lucius, it was a start.


End file.
